Bodley and Faust book report

“Many of the most significant technological innovations, including antibiotics, TV, computers, nuclear energy, mass produced organic compounds, and jet propulsion have arrived within the past 25 years.” (Bodley p. 3) Bodley writes that

It is disturbing, as Bodley writes, that we have such an impact on the earth. Our massive industrialization has become a global process that has either destroyed or transformed many previous cultural adaptations and has given us the power to not only bring about our own extinction as a species, but also to speed the extinction of many other species and to change the most basic biological and geological processes of the earth as well. As Bodley writes, “If industrial man were to disappear overnight, he would leave an impoverished planet; but the extinction of man during the Paleolithic era would have been of no more global significance than the passing of the woolly mammoth.” (Bodley p. 3) Man has made a great impact on the earth, and our passing would be the destruction of the entire planet, in all of its biological and cultural diversity.

Bodley makes some good points and comes up with some logical conclusions, but often takes those conclusions too far. Bodley seems to believe that people are blinded by progress and that primitive society is superior and is often too strongly biased against our technological society. Although there is clear evidence that we are destroying our planet, there are also efforts to curb that destruction through new technology such as electric cars, and more efficient energy sources. Bodley believes that perhaps we can solve our problems with a paraprimitive solution, by incorporating effective parts of primitive culture with the best elements of industrial society. However I believe that Bodley strives for something that cannot be reached for us as we are now. We cannot go back from the point we are now, other than attempting to be a little more environmentally conscious. All we can do is go forward from here, it is not likely that we will find much that is “profitable” from primitive society, and profit is what drives our modern society of over consumption.

Bodley also praises primitive society for the use of swidden farming techniques, which are proven to be effective if enough land is available, and also is not harmful to the soil or forest. “The result was a new form of cultivation, commonly called swidden, slash-and burn, or shifting cultivation, which proved to be a highly productive, very adaptive subsistence strategy.” (Bodley p. 99) In this system a garden site is cleared in the forest and burned, which provides a fertile dressing of ashes and debris, in which a garden is kept for one to two years. The forest is allowed to return to the plot afterwards and another area of the forest is opened. The system is actually quite effective if there is enough land to allow sufficient fallow time, so that the surrounding land can recover.

One of the objectives of the book is to look at the problems of the world through an anthropological perspective in order to get a good look at what is happening to our society. Bodley believes that the holistic approach of anthropology, through the study of the biological, cultural, and psychological aspects of man is the source of the answers to our problems. One of the books primary objectives is that

Some topics in this essay:
War II, , Faust Bodley, bodley writes, bodley believes, primitive society, primitive cultures, World War, polar ice caps, destruction natural world, biological geological processes, tropical rain forest, bodley 3, biological geological, crises dangerous, geological processes, world war, waste own,